To support national language data, you need to have the same language configurations set in your SAS^® software and your operating environment. When you install and run the National Language Support (NLS) component of SAS, this installation meets the requirements for NLS support for SAS. However, you also have to configure the language setting for your operating environment.

For example, in Microsoft Windows operating environments, use Regional and Language Options in Windows Control Panel to configure the appropriate language setting. For more information about configuring the language setting under Windows, see Configuring Regional and Language Settings in Setting Up SAS^®9 National Language Support in Windows Operating Environments.

As an NLS user of SAS, you might see question marks in your data when you try to read your national language data into SAS. These question marks might occur because you are using an English edition of SAS to process your national language data instead of using SAS with your national language. This issue most often occurs when you are working with Eastern Asian language data such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK). A localized edition of SAS translates the language of the SAS interface into different languages and enables you to view the respective national language data.

Background of NLS in SAS^® software

SAS began support of national language data with SAS^® 6. At that time, most NLS users were from Asia. Over the years, however, a significant increase in the number of NLS users has occurred throughout the world. In SAS^® 8, the NLS components needed to be ordered separately from English-language components. However, beginning with SAS^®9, the NLS components are included with Foundation SAS^®. In SAS 9.1, the NLS components include additional language editions of SAS than the CJK languages, such as French, German, Polish, and Russian.

In addition, SAS^® 9.1 Foundation supports double-byte character set (DBCS) and Unicode encodings. The English with DBCS and Unicode support option of SAS benefits English-language users with an English interface and enables support of national language data. However, in SAS^®9, the installation of NLS components is optional. If the language settings are not properly configured during installation, then installing NLS components after the installation can be difficult. Beginning with SAS 9.2, though, the English with DBCS and Unicode support option of SAS is installed by default, but the localizations of SAS remain optional during installation.

Operating System and Release Information